ZOMBIES!!!!!!

As a result of my recent obtaining and reading of the Walking Dead, as well as my long interest in bad zombie movies, my dormant gusto to add zombies and beer together has been rekindled!  Yes, I am that lame.  And no, I do not care.

How does one add zombies and beer together?  Add infected human flesh to the mash?  Excuse my blatant geek behavior for a moment there.  I simply hope to make a line of beers that are zombie themed in name, as well as tasting delicious per usual.  I am convinced that that if I were to open a brewery that I would most certainly do a special line of beers in this vein.  As you may be able to tell, my doors would not be open for long.

So, on to the naming.  Currently I have a short list that I have put together and hope to build upon in the near future:

The Night of the Drunken Dead- Russian Imperial Stout
Zombie Hopocalypse- Imperial IPA
Initial Infection- American Wild Ale (Get the word play, get it!?!?)
Patient Zero- ?

As you can see, the list is fairly short as well as nothing terribly exciting.  I enjoy the first two, while the next are merely meh at best.  So please feel free to shot some suggestion my way as I would like the list to be a little longer.  As well, anyone with the ability to design some beer labels for these would be much appreciated.  The current state of the blog should give you a hint that help would be welcome.  I'm so excited for zombies I may add a page dedicated its progress (Did I create a zombie label?  Yep!  Will this be the only time it is used?  Nope!).

There may not be many people reading this, and those that are probably aren't very keen to combining the subject of zombies with beer.  That being said, don't let it hold you back!  Remember, puns are encouraged in the beer naming game.  Something has to keep you excited, right?

Sour Belgian Pale Ale Tasting

This next beer is one of my own, and its about time.  Back in January I decided to brew my first "wild" or sour beer as I figured it might be nice to have a couple of cases of some of my favorite style.  I decided to go with a Belgian Pale Ale base and pitched dregs from Jolly Pumpkins Luciernaga The Firefly as well as a shot of the Berliner Weisse I had fermenting at the time.  Unfortunately I had to bottle it in May before I would have liked as a result of having to move, but nonetheless was still excited to try the beer.

Sour Belgian Pale Ale

Appearance- Hazy yellowish orange in color with some floating sediment as some of the yeast escaped into the glass.  A frothy egg shell white head emerges and dissipates to a thin patchy layer with a noticeable ring around the edge of the glass.

Smell- Big wave of lactic acid sourness in the front with lingering green apple as well as other hints of citrus fruit in the background.  Light touches of earthy character and accompanying funk that is whisked away by the last lactic acid.  Slight cardboard as a result of oxidation in the finish.

Taste- Some thin funk and earthy character to begin before a punch of lactic acid sourness takes over everything.  Green apple and some citrus accompany the sour character that continues in the finish.  Slightly sweet and sour increase in the finish as well.  Sour character fairly reminiscent of Jolly Pumpkin (what a surprise!) without the overall complexity.

Mouthfeel - Light in body, maybe edging toward medium thin.  Limited carbonation that is prickly on the tongue with a very dry finish.

Overall and Notes- Very happy with my first shot at what I guess is an American Wild Ale.  That being said, it lacks some of the complexity that you see in great sour beers and only highlights a lactic sourness.  No big deal, was expecting something of the sort as I did not get the chance to let it sit as long as I wanted.  


For those of you following this adventure so far (and I'm sure I am speaking to no one), I was able to lose the birds but now am stuck in a world composed soley of shades of brown.  I'm getting there, slowly but surely.  That or not at all, I can't decide yet.

Cherrywood Smoked Saison

Time to start with the beer!  I figured that since I aim to adventure into some of the more bizarre brewing ideas, why not have the first review of something slightly more bizarre than usual?  Enter Cherrywood Smoked Saison.

A- Deep gold color with a hazy orange hue with a billowing white head that lowers to slightly less than a finger.  The heads lowers to less than a finger and some sticky lacing can be seen as well on the outside of the glass.

I don't own a proper camera, please don't remind me

S- Sweet malt beginning that begins to develop an underlying smoky character that sits behind the main saison flavors rather than taking the prominent role.  Smoke continues in the middle as a peppery/spicy flavor comes through.  As the beer sits somewhat longer the smoky aroma is becoming stronger.  Finishes peppery and slightly phenolic clove.

T- The cherry wood smoked character jumps out a lot more prominently in the taste from the get go.  The spicy saison character with splashes of phenolic clove pop up in the middle, but fall behind the smoked character.  The end finishes with low phenolic character, smoke, and a lingering bitterness.

M- Medium-light body with smooth carbonation.  Great dry saison finish to round out the beer as well. 

O- Different take on the saison, and interesting to boot.  If the cherry wood was dialed back a little I think some of the saison flavors could shine more brightly a la the dirty banana (Entered at the smoked competition).  

Not a bad start, and I have some ideas for the next couple posts.  In the mean time, I need to do something about the look of the blog.  Damn birds.

For the Sake of Beer!

Today I mark the start of a blog I have been telling friends and family was in the works for a while.  With some basic brewing knowledge under my belt, I hope to document my trip into the more bizarre and experimental areas of brewing with some help from brewing friends and trips I take along the way.

So what name could describe that process for me?  With my mind wandering for cliche and horrible puns that had been taken by others before me, frustration set in pretty quickly for someone who had nothing better to do in the summer.  "For gosh sakes," (edited for delicate ears) and then it hit me.  I'm doing this for beer, so why not for beer's sake?  It was brilliant!  The title had some word play, sounded arrogant enough to imply that I could actually do something positive for the world of beer (most certainly a lie, *sigh*), and I was too lazy to think of something proper, rather convincing myself that this was a witty name.

Finally, the blog has been set up in its most basic form and its time for beer!  I hope that there are those that are foolish enough to become curious with what I am doing, or what is more likely, those that simply have nothing better to do but pay attention to a person brewing beer.  So enough with the words, and more with the beer.  Grab a beer and enjoy!